De. 1 2. It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadesh-barnea. 19 And we journeyed from Horeb, and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which ye saw, by the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea. 46 So ye abode in Kadesh many days, according unto the days that ye abode there. Nu. 33 1 These are the journeys [or stages] of the children of Israel, when they went forth out of the land of Egypt by their hosts under the hand of Moses and Aaron. And Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys by the commandment of the LORD: and these are their journeys according to their goings out. And they journeyed from Rithmah, and pitched in Rimmon-perez. And they journeyed from Rimmon-perez, and pitched in Libnah. And they journeyed from Libnah, and pitched in Rissah. And they journeyed from Rissah, and pitched in Kehelathah. And they journeyed from Kehelathah, and pitched in mount Shepher. And they journeyed from mount Shepher, and pitched in Haradah. And they journeyed from Haradah, and pitched in Makheloth. And they journeyed from Makheloth, and pitched in Tahath. And they journeyed from Tahath, and pitched in Terah. And they journeyed from Terah, and pitched in Mithkah. And they journeyed from Mithkah, and pitched in Hashmonah. And they journeyed from Hashmonah, and pitched in Moseroth. And they journeyed from Moseroth, and pitched in Bene-jaakan. And they journeyed from Bene-jaakan, and pitched in Hor-haggidgad. And they journeyed from Hor-haggidgad, and pitched in Jotbathah. And they journeyed from Jotbathah, and pitched in Abronah. And they journeyed from Abronah, and pitched in Ezion-geber. And they journeyed from Ezion-geber, and pitched in the wilderness of Zin (the same is Kadesh).

The previous section narrates the events which in the Wilderness of Paran, and announces the took place after reaching Kadesh (or Rithmah) Doom of Israel to an aimless wandering of nearly forty years and the death of the existing a-lut generation, excepting Caleb and Joshua. This section is designed to cover the general points of interest connected with the long period of thirty-seven to thirty-eight years, which historically is almost a chasm. The single occurrence certainly transpiring during this period is narrated in the following section. The order proposed, in presenting these general points, is: (1) A geographical survey of the Wilderness of Paran, in which our map facing the title-page will be explained; (2) the location of Kadesh, second in importance only to Sinai in this history; (3) the stations named and the probable life of the people during the thirty-seven and a half years of wandering. B.

In following the route of the Israelites, the general direction is northward from Sinai “to the mount of the Amorites,” the highlands of Southern Palestine. The two extremes are the camp before Sinai on the south, and the “city” of KADESH, or Kadesh-barnea, on the north. The distance between these points was eleven days’ journey, about one hundred and sixty-five miles. Their final entrance into Palestine was made from the east, by way of the plains of Moab; but their first entrance was to have been from the south, by way of Hebron. This is clear from the command to march to the mountain of the Amorites: from the description of the circuit made by the spies, and especially from their visiting Hebron and Esheol. Whatever, therefore, the route to Kadesh may have been, that station was a final starting-point for Hebron; and thus we have some guide for the latter part of the journey. Between “the mount of the Amorites” and the group of Sinai lies the great table-land now called the desert of et-Tih (the wandering). There can be no doubt of its general correspondence to the Wilderness of Paran. The general limits of this wilderness are clearly marked out by the mountain ranges which divide it, on the southwest from the Desert of Shur, on the south from that of Sinai, and on the east from the Arabah. P. S.

The borders of the Biblical Desert of Paran correspond, on the whole, to the boundaries assigned by the modern Bedouins to the Desert of et-Tih. It embraces the tract of desert between Egypt, Palestine, and the mountains of Seir, which is separated from the Sinaitic peninsula (in the strictest sense) by the border mountains of et-Tih. This broad, desert tract of table-land is completely surrounded by a fringe of desert on a lower level. The Desert of Jifar (or Shur) divides it on the west from the Egyptian territory, on the southwest beyond the mountains of er-Rahah, from the Heroopolitan gulf, and on the northwest from the Mediterranean. On the north it is separated from the mountains of the Amorites, the southern slope of the table-land of Palestine, by the broad valley of Murreh, or the Wilderness of Zin. On the east it falls abruptly into the Arabah, which divides it from the mountains of the Edomites; and on the south, on the other side of the mountains of et-Tih, stretches the sandy desert-plain of er-Ramleh, out of which the promontories of the mountains of Serbal and Sinai immediately rise. The Old Testament furnishes indisputable proofs that the Desert of Paran was quite as extensive as this. This large tract of desert slopes generally downward in the direction from south to north, and rises from west to east, until it falls abruptly into the Arabah. In De. 1:19 it is most appropriately designated a “great and terrible desert.” In general, it consists of table-land, on which bare limestone and sandstone rocks, dazzling chalk and red sand-hills, are almost the sole relief from the parched and barrent tracts of sand, interspersed with gravel and black flint-stones. At the same time, so much water falls in the wadies during the rainy season, that a scanty supply of grass and herbs may be found for the support of passing herds. There are also a few wells and fountains with a constant supply of water. The desert is divided into two halves, an eastern and a western, by the Wady el-Arish (called in the Old Testament (Nu. 34:4, 5) “brook of Egypt”), which runs completely from north to south. Although there are several by no means inconsiderable mountains in the western half, it is distinguished from the eastern by a far greater regularity and flatness in the soil. [But it is to the eastern half that our attention is to be especially directed, as to that section, and chiefly its northern part, the sojourn of the Israelites was exclusively confined.] In the eastern half a large mountain range, the Jebel Ojmeh, branches off northeasterly from the Jebel et-Tih, near to the mouths of the Wady el-Arish. The southern portion of this eastern half (about two thirds of the whole) has throughout a similar character to the western. It consists of barren, sandy table-land, the surface of which is broken by but a very small number of isolated mountains. Its slope toward the northeast is indicated by the large Wady Jerofeh, which runs in a northeasterly direction to the Arabah. But the northern third of this eastern half has a totally different character. There suddenly rises from the plain a strong mountain fastness, of a rhomboid shape and of the same breadth as the Wady Jerafeh, at the point where it joins the Arabah; and this mountain covers the northern portion of the eastern half of the desert. At the present day it is called, after its inhabitants, the mountain country of the Azazimeh. This mountain country rises precipitously from the surrounding valleys or plains on the south, the east, and the north; and it is only on the western side that it slopes off more gradually toward the Wady el-Arish. As it is completely detached on every side, and forms a compact mass with its gigantic mountain groups, it presents the most striking contrast to the desert by which it is surrounded, and would be altogether isolated, “were it not that, toward the northwest, instead of terminating abruptly in a corner column, a line of mountains intervenes, and thus prevents entire separation from the Amorite mountains.” The southern boundary wall of this mountain fortress is formed by a range which rises steeply and in an imposing manner from the desert, and runs in a straight line from west to east, and which towers up to an immense height at both the eastern and western ends. The corner column toward the east, quite close to the Arabah, is called Jebel Mekrah, and that toward the west Jebel Araif en-Nakah. The eastern wall rises with equal abruptness from the Arabah, but is intersected by several defiles, which furnish approaches of more or less difficulty into our mountain fortress. The northern boundary wall, Jebel Halal, which had remained altogether unknown until very recently, is cut off almost vertically by a broad defile, the Wady Murreh, which runs from east to west, and opens into the Arabah. On the other side of this valley, the plateau Rakmah, the southern rampart of the Palestinian mountains of the Amorites, rises perpendicularly. The Wady Murreh is as much as ten or fifteen miles broad. At the eastern extremity the solitary mountain of Madurah (Modera) rises in the very midst of the valley. To the south of this mountain the principal valley bends in a southeasterly direction toward the Arabah, still bearing the name of Wady Murreh, and to the north of the Madurah a side branch of the valley leads through el-Ghor to the Dead Sea, under the name of Wady Fikreh. When passing (westward) through the Wady Murreh, the ascent is constant from the lowest level of the Arabah, and therefore the relative height of the mountain walls, by which it is enclosed on the north and south, is continually diminishing. You proceed westward, and ardrive at length at the link, already referred to, by which the south-western corner of the Amoritish plateau of Rakmah is connected with the northwestern corner of the Azazimat. This link is formed by an eminence to the east of Eboda (Abdeh), “from which the Jebel Garrah and Jebel Gamar emerge, the former toward the northwest, and the latter to the southwest, and encircle Eboda in the form of an amphitheatre.” The western wall of the mountain fortress runs in a straight line from its southern corner (Jebel Araif en-Nakah) to the northern heights, which unite it with the Rakmah, and bears the names of Jebel Yaled and Moyleh (or Moilahi). It is a lofty mountain range, from three to four hundred feet high, which is intersected by numerous wadies, running parallel to one another from north to south, and all opening into the Wady el-Arish. The road from Sinai to Hebron passes at the foot of this western wall of the Azazimat, and through the undulating tract of desert land which lies between it and the Wady el-Arish.

As you pass along the ordinary road to Hebron, on the western side of the mountainous district of the Azazimeh, the whole of the mountain slopes between Jebel Araif and Jebel Khalil (or the heights of Hebron) appear to form a continued and unbroken range. But just as the separation of the mountains of the Amorites from the northern wall of the Azazimat, by the Wady Murreh, is concealed by the link which connects the two together to the east of Eboda; so do the projecting ranges of the western wall of the Azazimat keep out of sight an extended desert plain, which runs for many miles into the heart of the Azazimat on the other side of the Jebel Moyleh, and into which several wadies open from the eastern side of the mountain (e.g., the Wady Kesaimeh, the Wady Muweilih [Moilahi], and the Wady Retemat). “In the remote background, surrounded by the wilderness, there stands in a state of remarkable isolation the strong rock with its copious spring—the spot which still bears the ancient name of Kadesh (Ain Gadis), and of which Howlands was the discoverer.” That this is the wilderness of Kadesh, which plays so important a part in the history of the sojourn of the Israelites, is apparently no longer open to dispute. From the peculiar configuration of the soil, we may easily understand why this plain, which has a distinct name of its own (viz., Kadesh), should sometimes be regarded as a part of the Desert of Paran (et-Tih), and at other times as belonging to that of Zin (the plain of Murreh). Kurtz.

Route of Israelites from Sinai to Kadesh

Of the ways open to the Israelites from Sinai to the southern boundary of Canaan, the most easterly led along the western shore of the Elanitic Gulf to the Arabah, and then through the Arabah to the southeastern border of Canaan. But, however well adapted the road through the broad valley of the Arabah may appear, such a supposition is inconsistent with De. 1 : 19, where the Israelites are said to have traversed “the whole of the great and terrible desert,” by which we can only understand the Desert of et-Tih; and this they would never have touched at all if they had taken the easterly road. Ewald, Tuch, Winer, R. Schwarz, and Fries are all agreed that they took the westerly road, which leads from Horeb to Hebron across the mountains of et-Tih and the large tract of table-land of the same name, by the western foot of the Jebel Araif, and which is taken by most of the travellers to Sinai at the present day. K.

When the Israelites moved over from Mount Sinai to Kadesh-barnea, they went across the “great and terrible wilderness;” which would not have been the case had they skirted the eastern peninsula into and along the Arabah. That “wilderness” must have been the elevated desert-plateau of et-Tih. In journeying by the “Way of Mount Seir,” they simply took the easternmost road out of the Mount Sinai group; a road bearing the name and trending in the direction of Mount Seir, but which they followed no farther than brought them to the border of the wilderness beyond which lay the land of their seeking. They took the Mount Seir Road, but they did not pursue that road to Mount Seir. On the face of it, the Amorite Hill-country Road would seem to have been that one road which presents itself for a desert-crossing to a northward-bound traveller coming out of the Mount Sinai group by the easternmost or Mount Seir Road. That is the road which leads to the Amorite Hill-country. It is obviously the road which the Israelites would have taken unless, indeed, they were compelled to go elsewhere for reasons not yet indicated. Of late, a possibility of an alternative road through the Azazimeh mountain tract, running diagonally northwestward from the southeastern corner of that tract, has been suggested. It was reserved for the experienced Holland to note the possibility of such a road out from the Desert et-Tih. It was on his last visit to the peninsula that he first ascertained that Jebel Makrah was separated from Jebel Jerafeh, at the southeastern corner of that mass of mountains, instead of the two mountains being in a connected and unbroken range, as was before supposed. Between these two mountains there is a roadway, which Holland thinks finds its course up to the borders of Canaan—to the Amorite Hill-country. Wherever Hazeroth may have been, and whether the Israelites passed into the Azazimeh mountain tract from that southeastern corner, near Jebel Makrah, or kept on along the southern face of that tract until they rounded Jebel Araif en-Nakah—their third encampment was at the strategic stronghold (within that tract), then known as Rithmah, afterward as Kadesh, yet later as En-mishpat, later still as Meribah-Kadesh, and now as Wady Gadis.

Kadesh-barnea has a manifold importance in the sacred story. It looms up as the objective point of the Israelites in their movement from Sinai to the Promised Land. It is the place of their testing, of their failure, of their judging, and of their dispersion. It is their rallying centre for the forty years of their wandering, and the place of their reassembling for their final move into the land of their longings. It is the scene of repeated and varied displays of God’s power and of his people’s faithlessness. And finally it is the hinge and pivot of the southern boundary of the holy land in history, and of the holy land in prophecy. H. C. T.

Two stages alone of the journey are distinctly visible, from Sinai to Kadesh, and from Kadesh to Moab. Kadesh is in this stage of the history almost what Sinai was in the first. “He brought them to Mount Sinai” “and to Kadesh-barnea.” It is the only place dignified by the name of a “city.” The encampment there is distinct in character from any other in the wilderness, except the stay at Sinai. Stanley.—According to Nu. 20 : 13, Kadesh also received the name Meribah (Strife-water) and in Gen. 14 : 7 it occurs under the name of En-Mishpat (fountain of judgment or decision). The explanatory words, “that is Kadesh” (which occur in Gen.), seem to imply that En-Mishpat was the original name, and Kadesh a more recent one, which was not in existence in the time of Abraham. In Nu. 33 : 18 the place is called Rithmah, and not Kadesh; whereas in verse 36, after the infliction of the judgment, it is not called Rithmah, but Kadesh. K.—The place where the people murmured upon the return of the spies was now named Kadesh, because the Lord was there sanctified upon the people, and Barnea, or the wandering son, because here was the decree made of their long wandering in the wilderness.

They continued a good space at Kadesh before they removed; for so said Moses, Ye abode in Kadesh many dogs. Lightfoot.

Kadesh is to be recognized in the plain and fountain of Gadis, just within the northwest corner of the mountains of the Azazimeh. This desert plain, some ten miles by six in extent, is screened from ordinary observation by the outer mountain walls of the Azazimat, which shut it off on the west from the desert road from Sinai to Hebron, on the north from the Wady Murreh. At the northeast of the plain is a bold and bare rock, a promontory of the northern mountain rampart, from the foot of which issues a copious spring, which begins by falling in cascades into the bed of a torrent, and ends by losing itself in the sands. The plain of Gadis is strictly within the limits of that southern desert now called et-Tih, and yet it is quite close to the Wady Murreh, which with its sandy expansions toward the east may well have been the Wilderness of Zin. R. W.—This plain, which we may confidently set down as the ancient Desert of Kadesh, embraces a superficial area of about nine or ten English miles in length, and five or six in breadth. The rock with the Ain Gadis is situated at the northeast of the plain, where it presents the appearance of a solitary promontory of the Jebel Halal. It is a bare rock, at the foot of which there issues a copious spring, which falls in beautiful cascades into the bed of a mountain torrent, and after flowing about four hundred paces in a westerly direction, is lost in the sand. “I have discovered Kadesh at last,” writes Rowlands to Williams. “I look with amazement upon the stream from the rock which Moses smote, and the lovely waterfalls in which it descends into the bed of the brook below.” K.

I came to the place so glowingly described by Mr. Rowlands, and found it all that he had pictured. It was an oasis unapproached by any I had seen in the desert since leaving Feiran, and not surpassed, within its limits, by that. It was carpeted with grass and flowers. Fig-trees laden with fruit were against its limestone hillsides. Shrubs in richness and variety abounded. Standing out from the mountain range at the northward of the beautiful oasis amphitheatre, was the “large single mass or small hill of solid rock” which Rowlands looked at as the cliff (sela) smitten by Moses to cause it to “give forth its water” when its flowing had ceased. From beneath this cliff came the abundant stream. A well, walled up with time-worn limestone blocks, was the first receptacle of the water. Not far from this was a second well similarly walled, supplied from the same source. Around both these wells were ancient watering troughs of limestone. Several pools, not walled up, were also supplied from the stream. On from the line of these pools a gurgling stream flowed musically for several hundred yards and then lost itself in the verdure-covered desert. The water was clear and sweet and abundant. Two of the pools were ample for bathing. Before the cliff, and around its neighboring wells, camel and goat dung was trodden down as if by the accumulations of centuries, showing that the place was much frequented for watering purposes.

Mr. Rowlands was certainly correct as to the name, the general location, and the description of this remarkable place. It is Gadis. There is a Jebel Gadis, a Wady Gadis, and an Ain Gadis. It is quite as far to the eastward as he put it, fully twelve to fifteen miles east-southeast of his Moilahhi, or Ain Muweilih. The wady at the head of which it is situated is an extensive and fertile plain, larger by far than er-Rahah before Jebel Musa, where the children of Israel received the Law. Remains of rude stone buildings and other ruins abound in the vicinity, showing that it was once a well-peopled region. H. C. T.

For an exhaustive and conclusive treatment of this whole subject the reader is referred to Dr. Trumbull’s admirable volume, entitled Kadesh-barnea, noted in “Index of Authors Cited.” B.

The connection between Kadesh and Gadis is as close as in almost any Hebrew and Arabic names now identified by modern scholars. Mr. Palmer speaks Arabic like a native, and he gives the name Gadis. Our dragoman was an Arabic-speaking Syrian, and he on the spot gave us the name; and we heard it from the lips of Suleiman, the sheikh, who definitely declared this fountain to be known to all the Arabs as Ain Gadis. There is, therefore, no mistake as to the name. S. C. B.—Ain Gadis, at the head of the Wady Gadis, the name being the exact Arabic equivalent of the Hebrew Kadesh (i.e., a sacred city or separated place), is just at the frontier of the south country of Judah, of which it is the key strategically, as its identification is the key topographically, to this part of the history of the wanderings. It exactly answers to the description of the Bible; the Israelites waiting, as it were, on the threshold of the southern portion of the Promised Land, and, from the evidence on all sides, we may fairly conclude that the surrounding country was better supplied with water than it is now; and that it was, therefore, at least as suitable for the encampment of the Israelitish hosts as any spot in Sinai. There are three springs which form shallow pools, one of them overflowing and producing a stream of water in the rainy season; its exact position is lat. 31° 34’, long. 43° 31’, and situated on the natural border of the country.

We are here on one of the most interesting spots in early Scripture history. It is first mentioned in Gen. 14:7, in the account of the foray of Chedorlaomer, who crossed from Seir, or Petra, to Kadesh, defeated the Amorites, and then turned back to the northeast to Hazezon Tamar, or Engedi, by the Dead Sea. It is next mentioned in Gen. 16:14, as marking the situation of Hagar’s Well, Beer-lahai-roi, which lay between Kadesh and Bered, a site not yet satisfactorily identified. Hence Joshua and Caleb, with their companions, were sent to spy out the country, and hither they returned with the grapes of Eshcol and their report of the land. Here broke out the murmuring; and here, after those who had brought up an evil report died of the plague, began the forty years’ penal wandering in the wilderness. Hence, stung with shame and sudden remorse, the people, against the exhortations of Moses and without the presence of the Ark of the Covenant, went up against the Amalekites and the Canaanites, and were defeated and discomfited even unto Hormah (Nu. 14). Hither Israel returned after the rebellion of Korah; and here Miriam died and was buried (Nu. 20:1). H. B. T.

The Position and Extent of the Desert of Zin. According to Nu. 13:26, Kadesh was within the limits of the Desert of Paran; but according to 20:1 and 27:14, it was in the Desert of Zin; and in 33:36 the Israelites are said to have pitched in “the Wilderness of Zin, which is Kadesh.” From this it clearly follows that Zin must have formed a part of the still more extensive Desert of Paran; and if the spies who were sent from the Desert of Paran surveyed the land “from the Wilderness of Zin unto Rehob” (13:21), it must have lain close to the southern border of Canaan. But the relative position of the various localities may be seen still more clearly from Nu. 34:3 sqq. and Josh. 15:1 sqq., where the southern boundary of Judah from the Dead Sea to the brook of Egypt on the Mediterranean - that is, from east to west -is said to have started from the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, skirted the Scorpion Steps (Maaleh Akrabbim; that is, as Robinson correctly observes, the row of cliffs which runs diagonally across the el-Ghor in the form of an irregular curve, and constitutes the boundary between this valley and the more elevated Arabah), whence it passed along to Zin, and then upward to the south of Kadesh-barnea. If we take this according to the literal signification of the words, it is evident that Zin comprehended the tract of desert which runs from the Ghor in a westerly direction, winding round the steep walls of the mountains of the Amorites, and is bounded on the south by a range which runs parallel to the northern mountain rampart. Tuch. - Hence it consisted chiefly of the broad valley of Murreh, including the Wady Fikreh and the Delta enclosed within the two. It may also have been used in a still wider sense - namely, as including the plain of Kadesh also, since the rampart which separated this plain from the Wady Murreh cannot have been very high, and the desert has very much the same character as the plain. K.

THE THIRTY-SEVEN YEARS’ BAN: STATIONS; LIFE AND MAINTENANCE OF THE PEOPLE (De. 1:46. Nu. 33:19-36).

They marched for thirty-seven years from that point round about, in the neighborhood of Kadesh; and therefore in the description of the encampments (Nu. 33:36), a resting-point was made there, and the objectless wandering through the wilderness is passed over. Gerl. - In a certain sense Israel never left Kadesh, and during the thirty-seven years this place had formed the northern boundary and principal point in that portion of the desert over which it was scattered, the southern boundary being on the Elanitic Gulf; and, secondly, that it was a matter of great importance, in connection with the general training of the Israelites, that at the close of the period of the curse inflicted by God, they should assemble together in the very same spot in which the sentence was first pronounced. Tuch.

Nu. 33:19-36. The stations, whose names occur between Rithmah and Kadesh, undoubtedly refer to the principal quarters occupied by the Israelites (with the tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, and the pillar of cloud) during their thirty-seven years’ wandering in the desert. As Rithmah (verse 18) coincides geographically with Kadesh, the seventeen stations must have lain between the first and second visits to Kadesh. K.

The stations named are those visited during the years of penal wandering. The determination of their positions is difficult, because during this period there was no definite line of march pursued. All indications thus far seem to show that the Israelites during this period did not overstep the boundaries of the Wilderness of Paran except to pass along the adjoining valley of the Arabah. Over the ridges of Paran then it is probable that for many years the people spread, while the tabernacle and organized camp moved about from place to place among them. Nu. 20 : 1 seems to hint, what is in itself natural and likely, that the “congregation” was during these years broken up. No doubt round the tabernacle there continued an organized camp consisting of the Levites and others, which was moved from time to time up and down the country. But there was no longer any reason for the coherence of the whole people in mass, and we may accordingly believe that they were scattered over the face of the Wilderness of Paran, and led a nomadic life as best suited the pasturage of the cattle. It is thus that the modern Bedouins maintain very large flocks and herds in these same deserts. “On one occasion,” says Dr. J. L. Porter, “I rode for two successive days through the flocks of a section of the Anazeh tribe, and the encampment of the chief was then at a noted fountain thirty miles distant, at right angles to my course; yet the country was swarming with men and women, boys and girls, looking after the cattle.” He adds with special reference to the Israelites, “The camp would be a mere nucleus. Yet as being the headquarters of the nation, containing the tabernacle, the priests, and the chiefs, and forming the rallying point for the warriors, it was the only place with which the sacred historian is concerned.” Thus the encampments named would be various spots at which in the course of these years the tabernacle was for a time pitched. Espin.

The indications of the text are that when the people found their progress into Canaan barred for a generation, they gradually scattered themselves among the wadies of the desert, living a nomad life—seeking sustenance by sowing and reaping with the divinely added supply of daily manna—having, all this time, Kadesh as the northernmost limit of their roving, and as, in a peculiar sense, the centre of their occupancy, or the pivot of their wanderings. Meantime, the tabernacle, with its ministry, would seem to have moved, under the Divine guidance, from place to place within the limits of the wanderings, as if on circuit, in order that Moses and Aaron might retain a spiritual oversight of the scattered people. Certain it is, that the popular opinion, of a formal marching to and fro in the desert for the forty years of wandering, finds no more countenance in the text than it does in reason—in view of the purposes of God with his people, and of the habits of Oriental nomads.

In this light of the narrative, the stations named in the sacred text, for the period of the wanderings, may be taken either as the stations of the tabernacle on its circuit, or as the exceptionally prominent encampments of the people as a whole, at the earlier or at the later portion of that period. H. C. T.

For a series of years the lawgiver and the nation pass mostly out of sight. He, it may be, was at work on those imperishable records that lie at the foundation of our religion. They were being trained and schooled by rites and observances, as by a series of object lessons for whyward children, into some reverence for a holy God; were shut away from sensual distractions to the pressure of his Law; were to be transformed by the life of the desert from the laxity of Egypt to the robustness of Palestine; and were to be bound together by bonds that have held them for three thousand years. An.

So far as the sacred records were concerned, there was no history between the first and second encampments at Kadesh. From Sinai to Kadesh the Israelites were moving forward. At Kadesh they were on the very borders of Canaan: only one step farther, and their feet would stand upon the holy land of the pilgrimage of their fathers, which was destined to be their own inheritance. But during the thirty-seven years, about which the scriptural records are silent, the history of Israel did not advance a single step toward its immediate object, the conquest of the promised land. It was very different in the fortieth year, when they were journeying from Kadesh to the plains of Moab. According to De. 8 : 2-6, the whole forty years, including the thirty-seven years of detention, may be regarded in the same light, as years of training and temptation, of humiliation and blessing, of natural wants and supernatural assistance. The relation in which Jehovah stood to the nation was not altered by the sentence of detention; and the people continued essentially the same in their relation to Jehovah, always ready to despair, constantly murmuring, easily excited to rebellion; but always rising again after their fall, and penitent after their sin. K.

Support in the Wilderness.

There was, it is evident, in former times, a growth both of the larger sorts of trees and of smaller shrubs, of which we have no remnant; there was also a large number of plants which might contribute in part to the sustenance of Israel during the journey; there was a universally distributed agriculture, as we learn from the existence of mines, and from the oldest

Egyptian habitations, as well as from the Christian monuments which are everywhere found—cloisters, hermitages, walls, gardens, and fountains; and, lastly, there is an evident possibility that there was a much greater supply of water in the wadies, more abundant rain-storms, and the possibility of economizing the supplies thus gained by a use of the same appliances which were common elsewhere in countries similarly situated and conditioned. Ritter.

The water-supply of this whole region, though scanty, is much more considerable than has usually been represented. After a journey through this region with various détours, undertaken with special reference to the conformity of the narration to the region, and on the constant lookout for water, pasturage, and the means of subsistence, the writer found that conformity much more striking, even, than he had anticipated. He reached substantially the same conclusion with Wellsted, that with sufficient care, there is “no reason why there should have been a lack of water,” ordinarily—although at times great straits must occur—but that the grand and constant difficulty would have been to find a supply of food. This difficulty seems insuperable. And the consistency of the Biblical narrative is in nothing more manifest than in the fact that it narrates the Divine interposition to give the people water as only an exceptional thing, but the miraculous supply of food as constant and permanent. S. C. B.

That the Israelites availed themselves of the means of support which the wilderness afforded them, in common with these tribes of the desert, is clear from what is mentioned of their flocks and herds. They are expressly said to have left Egypt with large property in these; and that they were enabled to preserve, and even perhaps to increase, these possessions, we may gather from the notices subsequently given concerning them, especially from the mention made of the cattle, when they sought liberty to pass through the territory of Edom; and from the very large accumulation of flocks and herds by Gad and Reuben, which led to their obtaining a portion beyond the bounds of what was properly the promised land. The Israelites thus had within themselves considerable resources as to the supply of food; and the sale of the skins and wool, and what they could spare from the yearly increase of their possessions, would enable them to purchase again from others. Besides, the treasure which they brought with them from Egypt, and the traffic which they might carry on in the fruit, spices, and other native productions of the desert, would furnish them with the means of obtaining provisions in the way of commerce. Nor have we any reason to think that the Israelites neglected these natural opportunities, but rather the reverse. So that the period of their sojourn in the wilderness may have been, and most probably was, far from being characterized by the inactivity and destitution which is commonly supposed; for Moses not only speaks of their buying provisions, but also of the Lord having “blessed them in all the works of their hands, and suffered them to lack nothing.” P. F.

Such a lot was hard enough, with all its necessary trials, and with its hope constantly deferred; but it is consistent and intelligible. It may be left to imagination to fill up the picture of the doomed generation dropping off year by year, and of the lesson impressed on their children by seeing their carcasses left in the wilderness. Nor must it be forgotten that this passage also of their history is emblematic of the whole pilgrimage of man, who must toil on to his rest through a path marked by the graves of his illusions and his sins. P. S.

During this long time all but a few of those who were above twenty years old at the commencement of that period had died off, according to the sentence pronounced upon that generation; and of these few the residue, all but the two faithful spies, Caleb and Joshua, seem to have been removed before entering the promised land. This remarkable consequence followed, that none (with two exceptions) being above sixty years of age—there were, in fact, no aged men in the camp, no elders, none unfit by reason of age to bear arms in active warfare. Thus, therefore, the new Israel was not only better trained, morally, for the great work before it, but was physically more equal to it; the host being encumbered with no useless members, but every man being fit to stand up as a soldier in the Lord’s host. Kit.

REBELLION AND DESTRUCTION OF KORAH, DATHAN, AND ABIRAM. MURMURING OF THE PEOPLE PUNISHED. THE PLAGUE STAYED THROUGH AARON’S INTERCESSION. TEST OF THE RODS.